Change of Title

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” -Stephen King. Truth.

So I hate the title Beasley’s Books.  Quite frankly, it is lazy. When I started this blog, it was on a lark and something that I knew I would talk myself out of doing if I didn’t just do it.  So now it is what it is.  But I hoped when I started that if I was responsible for reading and writing about it here then I would eventually feel like my reading and writing were improving.  Low and behold, I think that is the case. Now it feels like the blog needs a bit more respect from me, and a little less lazy.  

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.” – W. Somerset Maugham.  Truth.

  “No two persons ever read the same book.” – Edmund Wilson. Truth.

I have always been a reader, but I feel like a much more proficient reader now; not only do I read faster, but I also read better.  I also feel like what I have to say about the books I read might actually count for something.  One of the most important things for me, when reading, is that I open myself up completely to the experience, and what I have found is that when I do I take in a lot of truths about the human experience.  We are all a lot more similar than we think, but we experience things differently, and all of those experiences are important.  When I taught English, my students would ask why I chose to teach literature (pronounced with a fake-uppity-British accent), and I would say it is because it is never the same thing twice.  I could have 160 students reading the same book and not one person would read it the same as another, even if they were reading the Cliffs Notes instead.  I loved that feeling; it was so spontaneous and unexpected.  I miss it.  I stopped teaching in June of 2005, but I didn’t know I wouldn’t be going back and that is something I have still not accepted even though I need to.

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something, a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things, that you’d thought special, particular to you.  And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead.  And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.” – The History Boys. Truth.

“One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me?” – Alain de Botton. Truth.

After completing my Masters Degree, I got pregnant.  During my pregnancy I found that I literally couldn’t read.  For almost an entire year I did not read, and when I came back to it I read a bunch of fluff because I didn’t think I could handle much more.  I lost myself.  Slowly, I started to pick up some more challenging material, taking my mother’s rule of one piece of literature for every three pieces of trash very literally! Then in June 2010, I read Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives, followed in September by 2666, and I was back baby!  I wasn’t meant to love these books, but I did.  Every word. I loved them because they made me want to talk.  I wanted to explore them, and debate them, break the language apart and put it back together.  I wanted to talk to anyone and everyone about them, I was fired up; just thinking about it now gives me butterflies in my tummy.  I didn’t just want to talk about them, I NEEDED to and this is where I came to do it. I also loved that it was so clear to me that what Bolaño loved about literature was just this same thing I do; words are powerful and exciting, challenging and dangerous.  They literally move you, and so I made myself move.  I love my son dearly, but I am not a good mom if I am not sane, and reading has brought me back to me.  I am reading through the rest of Bolaño’s books slowly to make sure that I judge each on its own merits and not on the expectations created by the others.  His books brought me back to a world that I cherish and hope to never leave again.  I respect him for his passion and his talent, and I thank him for helping me find my way to my new Truth.

“Literature isn’t innocent.” – The Savage Detectives.  Truth.

“Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions.” - 2666.  Truth.

So with a new name, and a new focus, I continue to read and write and enjoy every minute of each.